| ATLANTA, GA - The March of Dimes Georgia Chapter announced today its 2007 community grant review results. March of Dimes invests funding annually in organizations with the capacity, competence and experience to implement projects that provide quality interventions for women and infants. In 2007, the March of Dimes Georgia Chapter is awarding $347,300 to eleven community organizations throughout the state through its grants program.
March of Dimes funding priorities for 2007 are to increase access to and quality of health care for women and infants, availability of prevention services, and availability of genetics services and folic acid education. Each of the 2007 Community Grants Program recipients’ projects are focused on preventing premature births, which is in line with the national Prematurity Campaign the March of Dimes launched in 2003.
"The Georgia Chapter Community Grant’s Program is designed to invest in community projects that further the March of Dimes mission and support national campaign objectives," says Mary Margaret Finney, Chair of the March of Dimes Grants Committee. "Our eleven grant recipients have the capacity and experience to address maternal and infant needs to ultimately improve the birth outcomes of Georgia’s babies."
The 2007 Georgia Chapter community grant recipients are as follows:
1. Athens Regional Medical Center, Centering Pregnancy Program - $40,169
The Centering Pregnancy Program reaches out to high-risk Hispanic communities in Clarke County. The project will increase access to consistent, quality, adequate prenatal care by breaking down barriers such as transportation, language, education, and socioeconomic difficulties. The project is planning to reach an additional thirty women in 2007. In addition, all women will be assessed for transportation barriers and all women will be enrolled in a breastfeeding program.
2. Center for Black Women’s Wellness, Inc. - $25,000 (Atlanta)
The project will provide services to pregnant and postpartum case management clients of the Atlanta Healthy Start Initiative as well as women of child-bearing age in the community-at-large. Services will include Centering Pregnancy group prenatal care, health education workshops on reproductive health, and a health fair.
3. Coastal Coalition for Children, Inc., Embarazo Saludable - $35,000 (Brunswick, GA)
The Embarazo Saludable (Healthy Pregnancy) program will impact the lives of women by empowering them to care for their unborn children with suitable affordable prenatal care and appropriate self-care. Through education and support, they will become better informed consumers of medical services and gain an understanding of how to have a healthier pregnancy, therefore give birth to a healthier baby.
4. Henry W. Grady Foundation, Inc., Centering Pregnancy Project - $46,871 (Atlanta)
Henry W. Grady Foundation will continue to implement Centering Pregnancy for indigent Spanish-speaking immigrant women. The group care will provide culturally competent prenatal services, education, social support, and self-care activities that will promote increased satisfaction and participation in prenatal care, and will improve health outcomes.
5. Grant Park Clinic, High Risk Prenatal Program - $25,000 (Atlanta)
The High Risk Prenatal Program will expand Grant Park Clinic’s existing prenatal program. In addition to providing free vitamins, prenatal and preconception teaching and routine prenatal care, the program will begin to offer high-risk prenatal care to women with diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism. The medical care for high-risk patients will be delivered by a volunteer obstetrician. A registered nurse will provide education to high-risk patients.
6. Houston Healthcare, Access to Care - $30,000 (Houston County, GA)
The Access to Care Project will increase and improve the perinatal care of lower income pregnant women in Houston, Peach, Bibb, Pulaski, and other surrounding middle Georgia countiesin order to decrease pregnancy complications and premature deliveries. The project will improve access to care in Houston through: agency collaboration, public awareness, prenatal education, and services.
7. Liberty County Health Department, Healthy Hero Babies Project - $24,491
The Healthy Hero Babies project will increase the rate of higher birth weight babies, lower fetal and infant mortality rates and decrease instances of premature birth in Liberty County. This program will provide encouragement and perinatal education for pregnant women of Liberty County, specifically military spouses and active duty female soldiers, who do not receive prenatal care until their twelfth week of pregnancy.
8. Polk County Health Department/Baby Steps Program, Polk Baby Steps Outreach Project- $30,000
The Polk Baby Steps Outreach project will provide intensive, ongoing home visitation to twenty Hispanic pregnant women, prenatal education to fifty pregnant Hispanic and African American women, and community outreach and education to more than 8,000 childbearing women in Polk County concerning preconception planning.
9. Refugee Family Services, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Program - $30,000 (Atlanta)
The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies project will provide group education programs and individualized services to increase access to and quality of health care for refugee women and infants. These women have many high-risk factors that might include a history of sexual trauma, female circumcision, low levels of education, high birth rates, and lack of exposure to medical services.
10. Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services, Inc., Perinatal Education Program, $40,769 (Atlanta)
The Perinatal Education project will continue to provide an opportunity for recently arrived pregnant Hispanic immigrant women to learn about prenatal and infant care, and how to access available maternal child health programs (e.g., WIC, PeachCare, Medicaid).
11. West End Medical Center, The Bilingual/Bicultural Program, $20,000 (Atlanta)
The Bilingual/Bicultural Prenatal Education project will provide Sub-Saharan African pregnant women living in Atlanta access to quality health care and prenatal/health education.
The 2008 March of Dimes Chapter Community Grants Process will begin in April and applicants can access the letter of intent application on the Georgia Chapter website at marchofdimes.com/georgia beginning April 3, 2007. Letters of intent are due May 7, and March of Dimes will mail invitations to submit a full proposal at the end of May. Full proposals are due the beginning of August 2007 with notification of awards in January 2008. Those interested in either a community award or a community grant should contact Gwen Houldsworth, Associate Director of Program Services, 404 350-9800 x 218 or ghouldsworth@marchofdimes.com
The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a five-year campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth.
Media Contact: Brittney Gray Gove, Director of Communications, 404-350-9800 x 224 or bgove@marchofdimes.com
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